52 The Scottish Naturalist. 



or Ireland. Specimens of the bird have been got two or 

 three times in England, but it would appear that they were 

 chiefly females. One was shot at Breydon, Norfolk, July, 

 i8i3;§ another at Aldboroueh, Suffolk, 1827 ;|| and a third 

 is recorded at Bedlington, Northumberland, 1846.* According 

 to Mr. Gould,f it is reported to have occurred twice at Lowes- 

 toft, somewhat recently. Mr. Stevenson, an excellent authority, 

 is not disposed to consider these cases trustworthy. A female 

 was procured in Leadenhall market, Nov., 1870. Mr. Thomson % 

 records four examples of the King Duck shot in Ireland from 

 1837 to 1850. They seem to have been all either females or 

 immature males. In Orkney, it would appear that this bird has 

 been taken twice only. A specimen killed there was exhibited 

 by Mr. Gould in Nov,. 1832, at a meeting of the Zoological 

 Society of London ;§ and Mr. Gray|| stated that a female was 

 shot amongst these islands, May, 1868, by Mr. Hargitt, London. 

 Mr. Dunn* says he shot a King Drake out of a pair at Wens- 

 dale Vol, Shetland, 20th April, 1846. Besides the above sum- 

 mary of examples obtained, there are several records stating that 

 the King Duck had been seen on our coasts. 



The King Duck apparently congregates in considerable num- 

 bers in some parts of Greenland, and other places in the Arctic 

 regions during the breeding seasonf; and when we bear in mind 

 Holbcell's statement that it can dive to the depth of two hundred 

 yards, using its wings for that purpose, and thus having facilities 

 of procuring food at depths beyond the reach of most species, it 

 might have been expected to frequent Iceland, and some other 

 of the more northern parts, at least, of Europe for breeding pur- 

 poses. Although it is stated by some authors that this duck 

 nests in the above-mentioned places, recent researches, how- 

 ever, throughout a considerable extent of these countries, have 

 not as yet shown this to be the case. On the contrary, they 

 have made it pretty evident that the bird is rather rarely met 

 with anywhere in northern Europe. Mr. Wheelwright, % who 

 spent ten years in Sweden, says he never heard of the King 

 Duck visiting the coast of that country, except in an accidental 



§Yarrell, Brit. Birds. ||Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. 4, 1831. *Zoologist, 1851. 

 + Birds of G. Britain. + Nat. Hist. Ireland, Birds. § P. Z. S., 1832. 



|| Birds of West of Scotland. * Zoologist, 1848. t Sir James C. Ross, Ap- 

 pendix, 4c. % Ten years in Sweden. 



